GIHS takes on epic 'Les Misérables'

by niagarau

Fri, Feb 3rd 2012 02:20 pm

Grand Island High School will bring Victor Hugo's story "Les Misérables" to life this weekend. The show opened Thursday night and continues Friday at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Approximately 100 students have combined to put the annual spring musical together.

by Larry
Austin

Everything about "Les Misérables," the
musical based on the epic Victor Hugo novel, is big, so it's only fitting that
Grand Island High School is producing the show with its biggest cast ever.

Approximately 100 students are involved with
this year's spring musical that promises to pack the auditorium at GIHS. One of
the longest-running musicals ever, "Les Misérables" especially appeals to young
adults, "and that was obvious by the number of students who came out and
auditioned. It was the largest number of kids who auditioned ever," said
Carolyn Lokken, who produces and directs the show with Michael DeDario.

The show follows the story of Jean Valjean,
imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread and chased by Inspector Javert after
breaking parole. The story takes place amidst the poverty and misery of
post-Napoleonic France and reaches an apex at the Paris Uprising of 1832.

Matthew Ells conducts the pit orchestra. He
likened "Les Misérables" to a big Rodgers and Hammerstein show, but with
contemporary music that provides "a more modern twist. It kind of redefined the
way a musical would look and sound."

"This is definitely one of the toughest shows
around to pull off in a high school setting," Ells said. "For vocal parts, the
ranges are huge, and the pit book would give a professional a run for his
money."

DeDario and Lokken said the students at GIHS
are more than up for the task of attempting a more mature show.

"It's got lots of very strong roles for people
to take on," DeDario said of the show. "We keep getting more and more talented
kids, and we want to get as many of them involved as possible, and this gave us
a chance to do that."

The cast includes students sharing roles on alternating
nights of the four-show run. Keelan Erhard (Valjean) and Nigel Michki (Javert)
will perform each night, but most of the other lead roles are shared.

"We have all this talent, so we have two
Cosettes and two Mariuses," Lokken said.

"Nobody is in there because we had to fill a
spot," DeDario said, but rather actors were cast to make the most of their
talents.

A byproduct of making room for more talent is
the audience will see multiple interpretations of the same character and same
songs.

"Especially with the double-casting, you get
to see multiple people put their own take on the characters, and it gives it
more diversity," said Samantha Pangborn, who will share the role of Fantine
with Lydia Bernatovicz.

DeDario said the rights to the show became available
within the last couple years. The student production, like the original all
sung-through, is not a vastly watered-down shadow of the popular show that
opened in the 1980s. The student version has all the songs, though small
sections are cut, and some keys are different to adjust for the high school
singer's voice, Ells said.

"But other than that, it's the real deal,"
Ells added.

That the show has run on and off on London's
West End, on Broadway, and in concert settings is a testament to its great appeal
to audiences, Lokken said.

"It's got great character development, it's
got a lot of variety, it's got a pretty relevant message I think that crosses
generations and ages," she said.

One of those messages is the redeeming quality
of love. Erhard said the theme is exemplified in the lyrics from the epilogue
his Valjean sings with Fantine and Eponine: "And remember/The truth that once
was spoken/To love another person/Is to see the face of God."

"It's not a feel-good musical, but it's good
and it's emotional and it's going to be really powerful," Bernatovicz said.

"It's a great opportunity to see talented kids pull off
something that not everyone can," Ells said.